I, a part of the audience, will not believe in Sasuke's or Itachi's defeat until it has been sufficiently set in stone. I think someone mentioned earlier that the entire ch. 387 is just Itachi's genjutsu, and I'm inclined to believe them. the crows point it out, for one, and I think earlier Itachi pointed his finger... but I may be wrong.

I don't think I am though.

As far as Sasuke and Naruto being equal... they aren't. Why? Because Naruto isn't willing to kill Sasuke. Sasuke will always be stronger until Naruto lets go of those bonds. Then? Naruto could win, due to regenerative abilities, Kage Bunshin, and his Fuuton: Rasenshuriken and Fuuton: Rasengan variations.

Sasuke has displayed great speed and ingenuity, along with some very lethal jutsu, and solid genjutsu. That, and he can supress the Kyuubi. Naruto would only have to have hidden Kage Bunshin to tell him if he's trapped in a genjutsu, and he can also use Kage Bunshin to learn and counter Sasuke's fighting style. Also, none of his most frequently used Ninjutsu are copyable, except for Kage Bunshin, and Sasuke doesn't have the chakra to use it in the same way as Naruto.

 

I see naruto as the one who's more willing to kill. Everytime sasuke was in a fight after meeting up with naruto, the first time in part 2, he tried never too kill. Even Oro said it. Where as evertime naruto was in a fight, he was willing to kill to end the fight fast. The only difference is that sasuke has more skill and naruto has more power. Once that is balanced out, the manga will become more fun.

 

On two seperate occasions (at the Valley of the end, and http://manga.unrivaled.info/showimg.php?file=/Naruto/307/ch307_UK_Page_16.png) Sasuke attempted to kill Naruto.

Sasuke didn't kill those Jounin because 1. Orochimaru wanted him to, and 2. he had no reason to kill them. He didn't kill the curse seal prisoners because he had no need to. He didn't want to spill the blood of innocents. However, I'm pretty sure Sasuke was fighting to kill against Deidara. Why? If he didn't he would've died.

Why was Naruto willing to kill Kakuzu? For one, he's Akatsuki. If he didn't kill him, his friends would have died. Why was Naruto willing to kill Deidara? Because he captured Gaara, one of Naruto's friends.

 

Am I the only one who's certain that Sasuke will pull another deus ex machina out of his ass?

 

Chapter 387 is out. They just battled with weapons for a bit, then it ended with Itachi reaching for Sasuke's eyes saying "I will have the light", and then a scream.

 

Yes.

On the side note, Naruto did kill in order to bring Sasuke back.

And that is the most note worthy comments i've heard all day. I'm pretty much leaning towards this reasoning. A climatic battle awaits us between those two.

 

I imagine that the Sanbi was like a child compared to the Kyuubi, with the lack of experience in using its chakra contributing to its comparative weakness.

I posted a theory on the Tailed Beasts' power over on ADD, since I believe the sealing of demons into humans is like a training method for the demons themselves. Like a crash course in chakra manipulation, because humans learn pretty damn quick compared to the longer living species.

That said, the new chapter was pretty nifty. If Sasuke gets an eye or two swiped I'll be very happy with the manga. Then again, it'll just give him one more reason to bitch that he's not strong enough and go off to find some new deux ex machina... Actually, that could end up being another Naruto/Sasuke fight, so bring it on .

Aekiel

 

Itachi getting Sasuke's eyes, and Sasuke getting Itachi's eyes is what I'm hoping for. Itachi's main weakness is taken care of, and Sasuke is thrown down a few pegs with now half-blind MS eyes.

That is of course, assuming that Itachi just doesn't kill Sasuke straight away.

 

Itachi takes Sasuke's eye and put a lazy susan in his head so now he has rotating eyes between ones he can see with and ones he can Godmode with.

Makes sense to me.

Edit: Wtf is Naruto up to, btw?

 

You are not alone.

He will do something that will make us shake our heads at some point during the fight. The most likely thing to happen will be Sasuke using "that jutsu" that Orochimaru told him not to use.

 

Seems to be a common one.

"Looks like I'll have to use that"

"WHAT!? THAT OMG NO"

But, that jutsu will just be the set up >_>

 

That jutsu = s3:banana:

 

Naruto, Kakashi, Shino, Sakura, Hinata, and Kiba are fighting Tobi, A.K.A Madara, and from what he said before they switched to Itachi vs. Sasuke, he may be about to reveal himself.

 

Okay, I got a theory on that score.
First off, the seal. As we know from the manga the seal lets the Kyuubi chakra mix with Naruto's own.

Only now we know (from Kyuubi bitch slapping Sakura) that that chakra is fucking poisonous and supremely bad. So what the fuck?! Naruto has that poison mixing with his chakra on a daily basis... why isn't he dead?

The logical answer is, I suppose, that Naruto, because of his constant exposure to that nasty crap in his chakra coils has developed an immunity or his chakra is constantly being forced to grow in retaliation to swamp and neutralize the Kyuubi Chakra. As such, where everyone else gets poisoned by that burning chakra, Naruto can play with it pretty easily... up to a point.

Now, that said, there's a trend with Naruto. At the start of the manga he could use almost none of the Kyuubi chakra. But when he tried to use Kage Bunshin, he found his unnaturally large chakra reserves (built up through constant resistance from working against the Kyuubi chakra) allowed him to grow his chakra and jutsu capacity.

Now, at each point in the manga, whenever he does extensive training that expands and exercises his own Chakra to the point of exhaustion... he suddenly gets this bump up of how much Kyuubi chakra he can also safely acces.

It started with none.
He learns KB and now can access a tiny bit
He does the tree climbing exercise.. and he gets access to more in extreme emotional moments
He keeps working harder and eventually trains with Jiraiya and taps into more (but notice he was working himself to chakra exhaustion again.)
He learns the Rasengan and again... more leading to the Valley of the end fight.

It seems like when Naruto's personal chakra capacity grows, he can safely access more and more of the kyuubi's power.

I personally think of the Kyuubi as being like rock lees leg weights... But the fox being there... he forces Narutos chakra to work nonstop and keep growing and growing... like a muscle being put under constant and increasing workloads.

If so, then the FRS training was yet another big bump up ... and if you go review the fight with Kakazu... you'll notice, Naruto isn't going berserk anymore, even though Yamato isn't having to jutsu his butt to keep him in control

My theory is that as Naruto's personal training ramps up and really workes him to get better... his capacity to handle more and more kyuubi chakra will increase as well.

Eventually he'll be able to use 4 5 and 6 tails without a repeat of his fight with oro.

But, it's just a theory. There's all that talk about rebuilding the seal and the key training... so who knows.

 

It's only poisonous when he uses several tails. And when he uses several tails, it hurts him.

You remember 4-tail Naruto? His body was being destroyed and regenerated again and again while using it. And Tsunade said that if he kept regenerating, it would kill him eventually. It's already taken years off his life. We don't know how many.

So, yeah, I guess he could use more then 4 tails. But for how long? We've seen him regenerate a lot. He can't have much longer to live.

 

Let's not be too dramatic here.

True, his four-tailed state shortens his lifespan because of the continuous breaking down and regeneration of his cells, but we have no way of knowing how much this shortens it. I don't think he's about to drop dead.

As for the chapter, I think Sasuke just lost that eye. Unless some deus ex machina appeared that can make Itachi scream in pain like that...
I'd say that's impossible, but you never know with Kishi...

 

Who is this "Naruto"?

 

don't you remember? You know, the that guy that had the strongest demon in the world sealed in him? i think...

 

Latest spoiler

Okay people... the script for part of the new chapter.

Spoiler

As posted and translated by Sho.

Verification: Confirmed
Raw posted by Himajin on 2ch

片目を取られて呆然とするサスケェ
Sasuke's in a daze from having an eye taken

鼬「もう片方も貰うぞ」
Itachi: "One more eye left for me."

サスケェ、鼬から離れる。鼬、片目をしまう
Sasuke gets away from Itachi, sans one eye from Itachi

鼬「これが力の差だ、お前とオレの瞳力の差だ」
Itachi: "This is the difference in power between us. The difference in the power of our eyes."

鼬、サスケェの背後に回り羽交い絞め
Itachi has Sasuke's arms bound behind his back

ゼツ「案外早かったね。イタチの勝ちだ」
Zetsu: "Well, that was surprisingly quick. Itachi won."

右目を抉り出される刹那何か時間が止まったのか止まってないのか分からん描写
The moment the right eye is gouged out, there's some scene where we don't know if time has stopped or not

ゼツ「だって月読食らったんだよ。もう動けないんだからあとは好きに料理できるでしょ・・・あ れ？」
Zetsu: "Then again, he DID take that Tsukuyomi blast full-on. He won't be moving anymore, so I wonder if I can help myself to a nice little snack afterwa-....wait huh?"

サスケェの両目は無事
Sasuke's eyes are safe and sound

サスケェ「ハァハァ・・・（ﾆﾔｯ　言ったハズだ。アンタがその眼をいくら使おうがこの俺の憎しみで幻は現 実になると」
Sasuke: *huff* *huff* "I thought I told you. It doesn't matter how many times you use your eyes. Hatred will make my dream a reality."

鼬「その台詞、そのまま返しておこう。さっきの月読で己の眼がもがれる幻は見ただろう。ならばそれを現実に してやる」
Itachi: "I'll say the same thing back at you. You saw for yourself the illusion of your eyes submerged through that Tsukuyomi. Now I'll make it a reality."

ゼツ「鼬の醸す空気が変わった！本気になったようだ・・・あの天照が見れるかもしれんぞ
　　　え！天照を！？そりゃ楽しみだ、やっぱこっち来て正解だった！！」
Zetsu: "Itachi's mood has changed! Looks like he's taking it serious. May even be able to see that Amaterasu of his."
"Huh!? See Amaterasu! Ooh, can't wait to see that! I knew coming here was the right thing!"

鼬、印を結ぶポーズでおわし
It ends with Itachi forming seals

So... what does this mean?

Spoiler

IMO... it reveals that Itachi is not fighting Sasuke for real.
To me it says that Itachi is holding back and attempting NOT to kill sasuke.

How do I get this out of the last two chapters?

Because, as Kakashi pointed out ages ago, if you die in a Genjutsu you die in real life. But, instead of killing Sasuke in the Genjutsu that Itachi has him trapped in, he made him think he plucked out one of his eyes and that's it. Sasuke still has both eyes. but Itachi could have just killed him and taken them. Therefore, itachi is holding back.

All in all... as expected... it's all a genjutsu fight so far, and Itachi is playing Sasuke like a fiddle.